Bryan's Emotions: Hard Times
by Craig T. Crocodile
Summary: With Bryan at college, Joy wants to keep him happy. However, the other emotions seem to have a disagreement with Joy.
**NOTE: This was a vent story I wrote about my current emotional struggle at college. This is supposed to take place in _my_ mind. With that in mind, please be respectful if you review this.**

* * *

It was 9:30 am, and Bryan was in his dorm room playing on his laptop, which he always did after breakfast. He planned to do some school work before his 11:00 Physics class, but something in his mind kept him from doing so. Being hyperactive, he was easily distracted by anything that catches his eye, especially on YouTube or Tumblr.

Inside his mind, five glowing beings called the emotions were standing in front of a control panel, with a big screen in front of it showing Bryan's point of view. Joy, the yellow emotion, had messy blue hair, and wore a green t-shirt and a pair of shorts. Fear, the purple emotion, wore a long white t-shirt and some baggy pants, with a singular long hair on his head that formed a curl. The red one was Anger, who wore a black short-sleeved shirt and jeans, and was bald. Disgust, who was green, wore a red shirt and jeans, with neat green hair. Sadness, the blue one, had short blue hair and wore a dark grey hoodie. The one thing they all had in common was that they all wore glasses, much like their host.

"Joy?" Fear quivered, "shouldn't we be doing our work right now? You said we would do it before Physics class started, like Mom suggested!"

"We will, Fear!" Joy reassured. "Just after this last video."

"You said that after the last five videos!" Anger growled to himself.

"C'mon, Joy!" Disgust said. "We've seen most of these videos before! We don't need to watch them again!"

"But they're so much fun to watch!" Joy said. "Learn to live a little!"

Anger growled deeply. A flame was forming atop his flat head. Joy was laughing at all the funny things in the video (even though he had watched it before, but he still found it funny). At long last, Anger couldn't take it anymore; something had to be done. Someone had to take a stand.

He burst with rage, the flame on his head now a roaring fire. "THAT'S IT!" he yelled. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Anger. The fire on his head was as big as it could possibly be. Anger glared at Joy with his usual ticked-off face.

"You have not been helpful to us in any way, Joy!" Anger growled. "You've been keeping Bryan from being successful ever since we came to this university!"

Joy backed away from Anger. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Our parents sent us to college so that we could be successful in life; so that we can get a job. _You_ , meanwhile, just want to have fun with video games, movies and videos we've seen a million times already, making drawings that possibly no one looks at, coming up with stories, the list goes on!"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Joy said. "Our creations are wonderful!"

" _That's not the point!_ " Anger snapped. "You're keeping Bryan from being as successful in college as he was in High School and such!"

"We're lucky that we made it to our second semester!" Fear pointed out.

Anger approached Joy, his fire still burning bright. "Because of you, we flopped big-time at our first Calculus test! Because of _you_ , we have to do our homework two days from when it's due! _Because of you_ , we have to do our work harder than we have to!"

Joy backed away from Anger and the console. "Now, now, Anger," he said nervously, "Let's not point fingers here..."

Disgust stood by Anger's side. "He's right, Joy," he said. "You're making our job harder."

Fear soon joined the two. "I've had to work overtime!" he said. "My list of 'consequences of failing college' has been expanding!"

Sadness, who had remained quiet this whole time, found himself amongst the group. "I've been worried about every possible outcome of each day here..." he whispered silently.

Anger crossed his arms. "Don't you get it, Joy?" he growled sternly. "Times have changed; Bryan's not a child anymore. Before long, we'll be on our own, without our parents' help. It's time that you accept the facts. The least you could do is _be helpful for once_!"

Joy's usual smile faded. He clasped his hands together, remaining completely silent. He had always been the leader of the team ever since Bryan was born. His one goal was to keep Bryan as happy as he could possibly be. While he understood everyone else's purpose and always let them do their jobs at the proper situation, he wanted Bryan to live a mostly happy life.

But now, after 19 years, his former colleagues now seemed to be turning against him. He couldn't possibly imagine why his friends would now hate him for his one job: being happy.

Joy slowly backed away from the group and approached the stairs to the sleeping rooms of Headquarters. "Could... could you all... give me a moment?" he slowly said in defeat. "I... I need some time alone..." He turned away and slowly walked upstairs.

The other emotions silently watched Joy leave the room. Everyone became concerned; everyone except Anger.

Fear looked at Anger. "Aren't you being a little harsh to him?" he quipped. "He's our leader, after all."

"Not at all," Anger muttered in response. His flame was smaller now. "Joy needs to face facts. He's keeping our boy from being an adult."

Joy tuned away, hiding his face from the other emotions' sight. He shut the door to his room behind him as he entered.

Fear faced the monitor showing Bryan's point of view. "Look at the time!" he said. "We have to get to class!"

Everyone faced the screen. "Put us on autopilot," Anger commanded. "We've done this routine enough times that Bryan can practically do it himself."

Fear pressed a button. Bryan closed his laptop and put it in his backpack. He slung his backpack over his shoulders and left his dorm room.

The day felt like any other day at college. Going to class, listening to the professor's lecture, maybe do homework in the classroom during the lecture, and so on. The only difference today was that Bryan found it hard to smile. And it was no wonder; only four of the five emotions were at the control panel, guiding Bryan through his daily routine. Headquarters felt awfully quiet without Joy. Fear had to take his place that day, but he was okay with it; college was an unnerving time for him.

It was 4:30 pm. Bryan's classes for the day were over. He went back to his dorm room and pulled his laptop out of his backpack. He placed it on his desk and opened it up.

"Now," Anger said, "We are going to work on that Physics lab report that's due on Wednesday, which is just two days away from now. So let's get to work."

"I'll handle this," Disgust volunteered. "While we may despise doing homework, it's still important that we get it done."

Sadness, who was quiet through most of the day (like he usually was), felt uneasy. Joy had not emerged from his room ever since that morning. He felt concerned. "Guys..." he whispered. "Joy hasn't been out here all day."

"Good," Anger retorted. "Like we really need him right now. He's gonna get us distracted from doing what's important."

"Don't say such a thing!" Sadness said. "He's our leader! He always finds a way to make things better."

"By 'better', you means worse for our time at college, right?" Anger growled. "He needs to face the facts now, Sadness. He needs a break."

Sadness tugged on his hoodie. He shuffled away from the console. "I... I'm gonna go see if he's okay."

Anger turned away. "Do what you want," he growled. "But don't expect him to care about what you say to him."

While the others worked on the lab report, Sadness walked upstairs and quietly entered Joy's room. Inside, Joy was quietly sitting at the side of his bed, hanging his head low. He didn't even turn to face Sadness as he entered the room.

"Joy...?" Sadness asked softly. "Are you alright?"

Joy acknowledged the sound of Sadness' soft voice, but didn't look at him. "I'm fine, Sadness," he responded. "Let me be."

Sadness was not fooled for one second. Something was definitely bothering Joy right now, and it wasn't like Joy to be this way. He approached the bed. "You haven't been at the console all day. Something's bothering you, Joy. Just tell me."

"What's it to you?" Joy answered. "You think I'm hurting Bryan, don't you? You think I'm leading us astray!" His voice became upset in tone.

Sadness sat up on the bed next to Joy. "No, I don't," Sadness said. "I think that you're doing a wonderful job at keeping Bryan happy."

"Too good of a job," Joy said in melancholy. "I'm keeping us from being a success in life. I've been valuing fun more than work." He sighed sadly. "Anger's right; I'm keeping Bryan from being an adult."

Sadness looked at Joy with concern. "Don't say things like that, Joy. This isn't like you. The Joy _I_ know would always find the fun in life."

"I _have_ been finding the fun in life," Joy responded. "But none of it relates to our life in college. We're gonna flunk out of college, and it's all because of me!" He sniffled as a tear streamed down his cheek.

Sadness hugged Joy. "Don't think that way, Joy!" he said. "You've managed to keep Bryan happy for 19 years. Sure, we've run into problems and tough times life has thrown at us; but we still made it through them all with a smile. We've gotten this far, and we can't give up now. Besides," he smiled a little, "being sad is _my_ job."

Joy sniffed. He hugged Sadness back and cried softly. Sadness stroked Joy's back in reassurance. Neither of them noticed Fear standing outside, watching from the window. He made a look of concern. He then turned his head and looked down at Anger from the balcony of the sleeping rooms.

"Anger," he said nervously, "I think you overdid it."

Anger turned to face Fear. "Good," he said. "I hope Joy's learned his-"

"He's crying," Fear interrupted.

Anger paused. Joy, the embodiment of happiness, was crying? Such a thing was unheard of! He only wanted to prove a point to Joy, but he didn't think that Joy would take it so hard and so personal. Perhaps he _did_ overdo his lecture earlier. He left the console and went upstairs, leaving Disgust to do the rest of the lab report. He went up to the window and peeked through. Sure enough, Joy was crying, and Sadness was hugging him.

Anger felt terrible. Just the sight of their leader being in tears was enough to make him regret what he had said before.

Joy stopped crying, and let go of Sadness. He wiped his eyes with his arm. "Thanks, Sadness," he quietly said. "I needed that."

Sadness slid off the bedside. He held Joy's hand. "C'mon, Joy," Sadness said. "Let's go downstairs."

Joy got up from the bed and followed Sadness out. As they exited the room, Anger stood right in front of them with a worried expression.

"Anger?" Joy questioned. "What are you doing here?"

Anger hung his head down. "Joy..." he began. "I... I'm sorry about what I said this morning. I... I only wanted our boy to be successful."

Joy smiled softly at the red emotion. "It's okay, Anger," he said. "I'm sorry for making it seem like I didn't care about college. I only wanted our boy to be happy with his life."

"I sense a conflict of ideas here..." Fear nervously said to himself.

Then, Sadness had an idea. "Joy, how about we find the fun in doing our school work? We could find times where we could fool around and times where we could do our work. That way, we'll be able to enjoy our time at college _and_ do all the work we need to do."

Joy beamed. His usual positive attitude came back to him. "Sadness, that's brilliant! Maybe I _can_ find some enjoyment in doing homework! Let's get right to it!"

Joy sprinted down the stairs. The others followed him. Disgust, who had been at the controls during the writing process, had had enough of this report.

"It's almost done," he said. "We should have it ready to print on Tuesday tomorrow."

"Excellent!" Fear said. He turned his attention to Bryan's bedside clock. "It's almost 5:00! How about we go down to dinner?"

"Sounds great!" Joy said excitedly. "We can come back after dinner and do the rest of our work; we have some catching up to do!"

"Promise you won't get us stuck in another Youtube/Tumblr time warp tonight?" Anger said sternly.

Joy held up his hands. "Promise!" he said.

After dinner, Bryan pulled out his Calculus textbook. He looked up the homework problems he had to do. He turned on some music and started working, doing as many problems as he could. He was much happier now than he was earlier today, with his favorite music playing in the background to keep him going. He took breaks every now and then, but he still did his work.

It was 10:45 pm, just four hours after sunset. Bryan had already taken his shower and was in his pajamas. He had done as much work as possible, and was back to his web surfing.

"We did it, guys!" Joy said. "We managed to get quite a bit of homework done today, and we should have time to finish them up before we have to turn them in! Now we can do whatever we want for the rest of the night!"

"Joy?" Fear asked. "Maybe we should go to bed early tonight? I mean, nothing exciting is going on right now."

"Or anything we care about," Disgust added. "Not to mention, we've seen all these videos before."

Fear agreed. "What do you say, Joy? Should we turn in early tonight?"

Joy looked at Fear. "Alright," he said with a smile. He pressed a button.

Bryan turned off his laptop and closed it. He turned off the lights and climbed into his bed. It took him a full hour before he fell asleep.

The monitor turned black as Bryan closed his eyes. "And we're out," Joy announced. "I have dream duty tonight, so I'll take care of sending these memories down to Long Term. Great work today everyone!"

"Good night, Joy," Fear said as he and the other emotions went upstairs. "Hopefully tomorrow will be better."

"Don't worry about it," Joy said in reassurance. "Things are gonna change around here, but it'll be for the better!"

"Just don't hold your breath..." Anger muttered to himself.

"Good night, everyone!" Joy said. "Sleep well!"

Once everyone was upstairs, Joy looked at the shelves containing the memories that were made that day. To his disappointment, there were only a small number of happy memories from today. But he wasn't surprised; he _had_ been absent half of the day.

He pressed the button, and the recall tube came up. The memories rolled down the shelves and went through the tube, into Long-Term Memory outside of HQ. Joy looked outside. Bryan's Islands of personality shone bright in the night: Knowledge Island, Art Island, Gaming Island, Disney Island, Adventure Island, Family Island, and Friendship Island.

There was no dream movie streaming tonight, which wasn't a surprise. Joy just stood at the console, staring at the blank screen. He pressed a few buttons, recalling a happy memory. The memory was projected onto the screen. It was from the time Bryan became an Eagle Scout.

Joy smiled contentedly as he relived that wondrous moment. He remembered all the hardships they went through to reach that rank. He knew they could overcome college if they did the same thing.

"Don't you worry," Joy said softly, as if talking to his host. "Tomorrow's going to be better than today, I assure you. I'll make sure that you have a wonderful, happy, successful life. I promise..."


End file.
